Page 78 of The Cinnamon Bun Book Store

Rachel arched a dark eyebrow. His sisters both ended up with dark hair. He was the only one who got the ginger hair from their father’s family. ‘And why not?’

He huffed. ‘I don’t do serious, Rach.’

Somehow she still had the uncanny older sister ability to sniff out his bullshit. ‘You could, though. You could make it serious with this person.’

‘Woman.’

‘With this woman. What does she think?’

What did she think? He thought he knew, but in his current state he wasn’t feeling super confident about anything.

He shrugged. ‘She’s just looking for some casual fun, like me.’

Rachel frowned again, a deep crease forming between her brows. ‘Casual can turn into serious. You know me and Patrick started out as a one-night stand.’

‘I didn’t need to know that.’

‘Well, I wasn’t going to get into the details!’

Noah laughed and it felt good. It felt good to be chatting with his sister again. Maybe he really would go to Thanksgiving with his family. Maybe he wouldn’t spend the whole time thinking about all the ways he’d screwed up over the years.

Maybe he would bring Hazel.

‘I’ll think about it. About bringing a guest, I mean.’

Rachel smiled. ‘Great. That makes this emotional, pregnant lady really happy.’

The next words left his mouth before he could think about them. ‘Maybe I should come home sooner...’

Rachel’s eyes widened. ‘Sooner?’

‘Yeah, I mean, I have a few more weeks of tours booked, but then maybe I should come home and help out for a bit ... you know, until you’re feeling better.’

The relieved smile that lit up his sister’s face sealed the deal. He needed to go home.

‘Noah, that would be ... wonderful.’

‘I can’t do most of what you do.’

‘Oh, I know that,’ she said with a laugh. ‘But we have plenty of ways we could put you to work. With Patrick still on deployment, having you here would be a huge help.’ She wiped a tear with the back of her hand, shaking her head. ‘Sorry. Pregnancy emotions.’

‘Don’t worry about it.’ Noah was on an emotional roller coaster of his own. What had he just agreed to?

Shrieks from the background caught Rachel’s attention.

‘Yikes, sounds like you should go.’

Her eyes rolled heavenward again. ‘Mom will be here soon to take over, but wish me luck in the meantime.’

‘Good luck. Talk to you soon.’

Rachel gave him one more watery smile before a crash had her scrambling off the phone to go investigate.

Noah leaned back into his pillows again. Rachel’s words swam around in his head. What story was he telling himself? That his family didn’t want him around because he hadn’t met their expectations?

No, the story he was telling was that he didn’t want to go home until he proved to himself and everyone else that his choice was the right one, that leaving school and home and the family business was the right thing to do.

He wanted to besuccessfulwhen he walked in that door.